Max Lucado Daily: WHO DOES THE SAVING?
If we are saved by good works, we don’t need God— weekly reminders of the do’s and don’ts will get us to heaven. If we are saved by suffering, we certainly don’t need God. If we’re saved by doctrine then, for heaven’s sake, let’s study! But be careful, student. For if you’re saved by having exact doctrine, then one mistake could be fatal.
That goes for those who believe we’re made right with God through good deeds. I hope the temptation is never greater than the strength. If it is, a bad fall could be a bad omen. And those who think we are saved by suffering, take caution as well, for you never know how much suffering is required. It took Paul decades to discover what he wrote in only one sentence. Romans 3:28, “A person is made right with God through faith.” Not through good works, suffering, or study…just faith!
Read more Grace for the Moment II
1 Samuel 4
The Chest of God Is Taken
Whatever Samuel said was broadcast all through Israel. Israel went to war against the Philistines. Israel set up camp at Ebenezer, the Philistines at Aphek. The Philistines marched out to meet Israel, the fighting spread, and Israel was badly beaten—about four thousand soldiers left dead on the field. When the troops returned to camp, Israel’s elders said, “Why has God given us such a beating today by the Philistines? Let’s go to Shiloh and get the Chest of God’s Covenant. It will accompany us and save us from the grip of our enemies.”
4 So the army sent orders to Shiloh. They brought the Chest of the Covenant of God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the Cherubim-Enthroned-God. Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, accompanied the Chest of the Covenant of God.
5-6 When the Chest of the Covenant of God was brought into camp, everyone gave a huge cheer. The shouts were like thunderclaps shaking the very ground. The Philistines heard the shouting and wondered what on earth was going on: “What’s all this shouting among the Hebrews?”
6-9 Then they learned that the Chest of God had entered the Hebrew camp. The Philistines panicked: “Their gods have come to their camp! Nothing like this has ever happened before. We’re done for! Who can save us from the clutches of these supergods? These are the same gods who hit the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues out in the wilderness. On your feet, Philistines! Courage! We’re about to become slaves to the Hebrews, just as they have been slaves to us. Show what you’re made of! Fight for your lives!”
10-11 And did they ever fight! It turned into a rout. They thrashed Israel so mercilessly that the Israelite soldiers ran for their lives, leaving behind an incredible thirty thousand dead. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Chest of God was taken and the two sons of Eli—Hophni and Phinehas—were killed.
Glory Is Exiled from Israel
12-16 Immediately, a Benjaminite raced from the front lines back to Shiloh. Shirt torn and face smeared with dirt, he entered the town. Eli was sitting on his stool beside the road keeping vigil, for he was extremely worried about the Chest of God. When the man ran straight into town to tell the bad news, everyone wept. They were appalled. Eli heard the loud wailing and asked, “Why this uproar?” The messenger hurried over and reported. Eli was ninety-eight years old then, and blind. The man said to Eli, “I’ve just come from the front, barely escaping with my life.”
“And so, my son,” said Eli, “what happened?”
17 The messenger answered, “Israel scattered before the Philistines. The defeat was catastrophic, with enormous losses. Your sons Hophni and Phinehas died, and the Chest of God was taken.”
18 At the words, “Chest of God,” Eli fell backward off his stool where he sat next to the gate. Eli was an old man, and very fat. When he fell, he broke his neck and died. He had led Israel forty years.
19-20 His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and ready to deliver. When she heard that the Chest of God had been taken and that both her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she went to her knees to give birth, going into hard labor. As she was about to die, her midwife said, “Don’t be afraid. You’ve given birth to a son!” But she gave no sign that she had heard.
21-22 The Chest of God gone, father-in-law dead, husband dead, she named the boy Ichabod (Glory’s-Gone), saying, “Glory is exiled from Israel since the Chest of God was taken.”
Our Daily Bread reading and devotion
Thursday, November 08, 2018
Read: Ephesians 4:31–32
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
INSIGHT
Scripture is very realistic about the difficulty of reconciliation. A community made up of broken people (Ephesians 4:17–24) will struggle with unity. Still, Christ’s victory over all evil (vv. 7–10)—including in our hearts—means that we can have profound confidence that believers, as Christ’s body, will grow in unity as His love brings us together (vv. 15–16).
But believers must “make every effort” (v. 3) to cultivate a community committed to “speaking the truth in love” (v. 15)—holding each other accountable for exchanging our natural lifestyles (vv. 25–29; 5:3–18) for the Spirit’s “way of love” (5:2, 18–20).
Most important, cultivating unity requires a forgiving, grace-filled spirit (4:32; 5:2) through the power of Christ’s Spirit, who loved us long before we loved Him.
This side of eternity, persistent sin may make it impossible for some relationships to be fully restored. Yet we can rest in Christ’s victory, trusting that His love and power will one day bring all of God’s children to perfect unity.-Monica Brands
Fathers and Sons
By David H. Roper
He will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers. Malachi 4:6 esv
My father was a good father, and, in most respects, I was a dutiful son. But I allowed my father to starve for the one thing I could have given him: myself.
He was a quiet man; I was equally silent. We often worked for hours side-by-side with scarcely a word passing between us. He never asked; I never told him my deepest desires and dreams, my hopes and fears.
In time I woke up to my reticence. Perhaps the perception came when my first son was born, or when, one by one, my sons went out into the world. Now I wish I had been more of a son to my father.
I think of all the things I could have told him. And all the things he could have told me. At his funeral I stood beside his casket, struggling to understand my emotions. “It’s too late, isn’t it?” my wife said quietly. “Exactly.”
My comfort lies in the fact that we’ll be able to set things right in heaven, for is that not where every tear will be wiped away? (Revelation 21:4).
For believers in Jesus, death is not the end of affection but the beginning of timeless existence in which there will be no more misunderstandings; relationships will be healed and love will grow forever. There, the hearts of sons will turn to their fathers and the hearts of fathers to their sons (Malachi 4:6).
Father, thank You for forgiving me and allowing me to experience a restored relationship with You. Help me to seek reconciliation in my broken relationships and deeper connections with others close to me even as I await the healing that will come in Your presence.
In God’s power and love, draw closer to others while there’s time.
My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Thursday, November 08, 2018
The Unrivaled Power of Prayer
We do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. —Romans 8:26
We realize that we are energized by the Holy Spirit for prayer; and we know what it is to pray in accordance with the Spirit; but we don’t often realize that the Holy Spirit Himself prays prayers in us which we cannot utter ourselves. When we are born again of God and are indwelt by the Spirit of God, He expresses for us the unutterable.
“He,” the Holy Spirit in you, “makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God” (Romans 8:27). And God searches your heart, not to know what your conscious prayers are, but to find out what the prayer of the Holy Spirit is.
The Spirit of God uses the nature of the believer as a temple in which to offer His prayers of intercession. “…your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit…” (1 Corinthians 6:19). When Jesus Christ cleansed the temple, “…He would not allow anyone to carry wares through the temple” (Mark 11:16). The Spirit of God will not allow you to use your body for your own convenience. Jesus ruthlessly cast out everyone who bought and sold in the temple, and said, “My house shall be called a house of prayer…. But you have made it a ‘den of thieves’ ” (Mark 11:17).
Have we come to realize that our “body is the temple of the Holy Spirit”? If so, we must be careful to keep it undefiled for Him. We have to remember that our conscious life, even though only a small part of our total person, is to be regarded by us as a “temple of the Holy Spirit.” He will be responsible for the unconscious part which we don’t know, but we must pay careful attention to and guard the conscious part for which we are responsible.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS
God engineers circumstances to see what we will do. Will we be the children of our Father in heaven, or will we go back again to the meaner, common-sense attitude? Will we stake all and stand true to Him? “Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.” The crown of life means I shall see that my Lord has got the victory after all, even in me. The Highest Good—The Pilgrim’s Song Book, 530 L
A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Thursday, November 08, 2018
Eyes Too Wide Open - #8304
I felt like the Big Bad Wolf in that story of Little Red Riding Hood; the part where he's masquerading as grandma. Little Red says, "What big eyes you have!" That was me the day I left the ophthalmologists' office. He had put dilating solution in my eyes for an eye checkup. Well, the checkup was over, but somebody forgot to tell my eyes. They stayed dilated for the next couple of hours. And everyone said, "What big eyes you have!" It wasn't much fun. Even though it was basically a cloudy day, I was squinting and I was trying to cover my eyes. With my pupils so big and so wide open, the light was blazing right into my eyes. I wasn't missing anything and it was blinding!
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Eyes Too Wide Open."
Our word for today from the Word of God - it's from Romans 16:19. It's really practical advice from God on how to live and think clean in a dirty world. "Be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil." There you go! There's a lot of junk in the world you just don't need to know about-to let into your heart-to let into your mind.
I'll tell you, the day my eyes were so wide open to everything that could get in-the day was blinding. I didn't see better when my eyes were wide open to everything; I actually got blinded by it! That's what happens to our spiritual eyes. That's what happens to your heart when you let things in that should never let in. Maybe you're being gradually blinded right now by all the images, and the ideas, and the conversations, and the humor, and the gossip that you're letting flood into your mind. My goodness, the internet, social media have created all new ways for them to flood in. You are less and less innocent about what is evil. You are more and more knowledgeable about things that God frankly calls sin; things which took His Son to the cross!
Adam and Eve fell for the lie that "the knowledge of good and evil" would be a good thing for them. They ate the forbidden fruit, their eyes were opened to evil, and mankind has been spiritually blind ever since. The fact is the devil seldom destroys people morally by explosion; by some sudden mega-temptation or sin. No, he destroys people by erosion; just slowly wearing you down by getting you to accept as normal or funny that which is repugnant to God. It might be interesting to recognize the things you are watching and listening to and laughing at that you would have never gotten close to just a few years or maybe even a few months ago. Your eyes are just too wide open, and you might not even know it, but gradually spiritual blindness is setting in.
You've got to stop this slow invasion-this gradual takeover of your senses by thoughts and lifestyles and ideas that are, at their root, anti-Christ. It's time to start turning the page the instant there is a picture or an article that portrays the darkness, glorifies the darkness. Maybe it's time to cancel some subscriptions, stop buying some novels, change the channel, boycott some websites, pass up the movie, stay off some social media, turn your head, leave the room. You know enough about sin already to poison your soul for the rest of your life. You sure don't need any more information about the darkness do you?
This isn't about some legalistic lifestyle. It's about wanting a clean heart and a clean mind so much that you won't allow dirt in. It's about loving what Jesus loves and hating what Jesus hates. "Be innocent about what is evil, wise about what is good." Load up on the good stuff. Proverbs 4:23 becomes your marching orders, "Guard your heart because it is the wellspring of life." With your spiritual eyes too wide open, it won't be the light that will blind you. No, it will be the darkness!